Using film, novels, interviews, and historical sources, this course will explore the history of gender relations, the family, and women in Russia. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, we will explore family relations in both noble and peasant families, the laws governing marriage, divorce and children, restrictions on women's movement and education, and gender roles. We will look at the explosive changes of the Russian revolution and the radical experiments with free love and communal childrearing. We will trace the development of opportunities for women in the 1930s, the painful demographic impact of WWII, and the changing culture of the post war years. We will end by examining the difficulties that rural and urban families are currently facing in the transition to a market economy.